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The Australian magpie is one of the cleverest birds on earth. It has a beautiful song of extraordinary complexity. It can recognize and remember up to 30 different human faces. But Australians know magpies best for their penchant for mischief.
These birds are able to recognize up to 30 different human faces and can mimic human speech, earning the title of one of the smartest birds in the world! Magpies inhabit a wide range of territories in Europe, Asia, and western North America.
The American Crow, however, is just the smartest in a whole family of whip-smart birds. They're in the family Corvidae, which consists of ravens, rooks, jays, nutcrackers, magpies, jackdaws, choughs, and treepies.
Interesting fact: It's true, magpies remember your face. They have excellent recall for faces and very long memories. So, if you've been swooped before, or even if you just look like someone they swooped last year, you're likely to get the same treatment again.
When magpies have formed an attachment they will often show their trust, for example, by formally introducing their offspring. They may allow their chicks to play near people, not fly away when a resident human is approaching, and actually approach or roost near a human.
For most of the year, Magpies are friendly and sociable, and may even venture into your house to beg for food. But for four to six weeks a year during August to September, the male Magpie will defend his home vigorously. For the rest of the year, people are completely safe from swooping Magpies!
Our canine friends are not nearly as clever as chimpanzees or dolphins. They rank in a similar way to cats, goats and pigs. And depressingly, in some ways, they aren't as smart as birds like pigeons and magpies.
Magpies generally cop a bit of flack this time of the year but one bird in Dunsborough Lakes might be the most generous in the South West. A female magpie recently gave Sandra St Jack a small soft toy, in exchange for items for her nest. Ms St Jack soon realised the toy belonged to her neighbour Lauren's dog Leonard.
A key reason why friendships with magpies are possible is that we now know that magpies are able to recognise and remember individual human faces for many years. They can learn which nearby humans do not constitute a risk. They will remember someone who was good to them; equally, they remember negative encounters.
The diet of a magpie
Their main diet in summer is grassland invertebrates, such as beetles, flies, caterpillars, spiders, worms and leatherjackets. In winter, they eat more plant material, such as wild fruits, berries and grains, with household scraps and food scavenged from bird tables or chicken runs, pet foods etc.
Our smartest birds are cockatoos and parrots, with palm cockatoos and budgies in the lead. Close behind are ravens, crows, bowerbirds and magpies.
They can also feel, have empathy and even grieve for the death of a partner; magpies in particular, apart from parrots, can form long-term friendships with humans or their dogs.
Magpies feel grief and even hold funeral-type gatherings for their fallen friends and lay grass “wreaths” beside their bodies, an animal behaviour expert has claimed. Dr Bekoff, of the University of Colorado, said these rituals prove that magpies, usually seen as an aggressive predator, also have a compassionate side.
The emu has the reputation of being one of the least intelligent birds among a few emu experts, including a Canadian scientist and a former emu breeder.
In fact, out of all the birds found in Britain, the magpie is the one that features in most superstitious tales. Encountering one of the distinctive black and white birds can herald bad luck - and legend has it that various steps must be taken to fend off the evil spirits.
According to The Intelligence of Dogs, which ranks 131 dog breeds in terms of their relative intelligence, the border collie is the smartest dog breed known to man.
The average dog's IQ is about 100. Based on the results done to test a dog's IQ, it turned out that dogs, even the average ones, have the IQ same as a 2-years old human.
In general, an IQ score is defined with a median and mean of 100. Scores above 130 are labeled as above average or “very superior,” while scores under 70 would be considered below average or labeled as “borderline impaired.” Most people have an average IQ between 85 and 115.
The months following fledging are a dangerous time for young magpies, with a high percentage failing to make it through the first year. If the young birds survive to breed, their average life expectancy is around three years. Some live much longer than this, with the oldest recorded being more than 21 years old.
Deterrents for magpies
Half-full plastic bottles or CDs hung up in trees to scare the predators away. Magpies don't like the way light reflects from the surface. GuardnEyes scarecrow balloon, available from Dazer UK. It may be possible to deter them by playing a tape of a crow or rook distress call.
Researchers have done experiments, figuring out that magpies not only recognise other individual magpies but even other people's faces! This story, about a magpie named Penguin, shows that these birds not only recognise faces but they have the ability to form strong bonds with humans too.